A’s interest in Iwakuma is ‘lukewarm’

I checked in with some sources about the A’s interest in Hisashi Iwakuma, which was reported by the Contra Costa Times the other day, and while I had it confirmed that Oakland is one of the four teams to have inquired about the Japanese pitcher, the A’s are “lukewarm” about Iwakuma.

I’m told that there are two teams with “viable” interest in Iwakuma, and the A’s aren’t one of them.

It would have been a neat full circle, though, if Oakland were to have landed the right-hander. The A’s won the bidding for Iwakuma’s posting fee last winter but were unable to come to terms with Iwakuma and his then-agent, Don Nomura, after negotiations that were at times testy. Iwakuma missed time last season with a shoulder injury, and he is now a free agent, with no posting fee required.

I had a chance to speak to new A’s acquisition Tommy Milone last week but couldn’t wedge in a mention into the newspaper; Milone, 24, has a good shot at making the Oakland rotation in the spring because of his more extensive pro experience, plus his sensational command.

“That’s kind of how I have to throw to be successful,” Milone told me. “You can’t let guys on with a free pass. I take pride in staying around the strike zone, throwing the ball to the right spot.”

Milone said it was “bittersweet” to leave the Nationals in the Gio Gonzalez deal because Washington gave him his first opportunity, but he likes the fact that the A’s have such a good reputation for developing young pitchers.

Milone will be joining the A’s growing USC crew. Former A’s top draft pick Grant Green and reliever Ryan Cook, picked up in the Trevor Cahill deal with Arizona, were Milone’s college teammates.

I’ve had some e-mails and tweets asking me what I thought of Bob Nightengale’s tweet Saturday that the A’s are expecting to get a favorable decision soon on their request to move to San Jose. That sounds like pretty much what team and San Jose city sources have been saying since the end of the season; the new part was that Nightengale gave a time frame of “by February.”

As many of us who have covered this issue have been been writing, the next owners’ meetings are in January, and many believe that the A’s stadium will be discussed there. But even if the team were to get the OK to move to San Jose – which is in the Giants’ territory – the land-sale agreement for Oakland’s proposed downtown stadium still would have to go to a vote of San Jose citizens, and I believe the earliest that might happen would be April.

A’s sources I’ve spoken to continue to be optimistic they’ll get the OK for San Jose. Sources with Major League Baseball continue to insist that no decision has been made. It does seem at some point, though, that the A’s will have to get some sort of clarity on this – they’ve been waiting for three years for the commissioner’s stadium panel to issue a report. January, February, April – they need an answer sometime.